3.5.2 Strengthening Socio-economic Approaches
to Water Management
Social, economic and governance systems need to address innovative solutions to improve the
balance between water demand and availability. Participatory approaches bring together dif-
ferent stakeholders, users and water authorities and provide platforms for fruitful discussions.
These platforms have been conceived to identify problems, to facilitate dialogue, and to identify
alternatives suitable for decision-making. This process of horizontal and vertical stakeholders’
integration will only be effective if they have access to high-quality scientific and technical in-
formation on which to base their discussions. Effort should then be made to best inform society
at large about state-of-the-art scientific knowledge on water resources, as well as on social
processes for information and decision-making. Research is required to improve DSS as critical
tools to integrate scientific knowledge on decision-making. Multidisciplinary DSS, covering from
social human sciences to physical sciences will be required for this purpose, as well as to effec-
tively guide policy development and water management decisions. The knowledge base on
water users’ behaviour and water economics needs to be expanded. Practical applications in-
clude the willingness of consumers to use alternative water sources (such as recycled water
for agricultural or forest purposes or for artificial recharge), and water governance – particularly
regarding frameworks, instruments, pricing policies and integrated models.
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